BRICS Bank to name first investments in April
February 27, 2016, 6:38 am

From left to right: Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and South African President Jacob Zuma in Antaly, Turkey on 15 November 2015 [Image: PPIO]

The BRICS New Development Bank has received project proposals from all the five member countries, and the appraisal of the first set of projects is scheduled for April 2016, the new lender said on Friday.

The bank has received an ‘AAA’ institutional rating from domestic credit rating agencies and has appointed Bank of China and China Development Bank as rating advisers, an official statement said.

The founding members of the NDB have already brought in capital of $1 billion as initial contribution.

Standard Chartered and Goldman Sachs have been appointed as advisers for international ratings.

At a press conference in Shanghai, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, who is also the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the bank, said the bank plans to invest in infrastructure projects in BRICS and is considering hydropower and electricity investments.

The NDB “will soon become a strong and well-respected international financial institution, playing a leading role in the changing international financial architecture,” Siluanov added.

Funding for the BRICS Bank will also be raised “in national currencies, in national markets to finance projects in the member states”.

The Russian Finance Minister also said the bank will prioritise “green energy development” projects.

The president of the Bank, K V Kamath said NDB will cooperate with other multilateral development banks.

It aims “to be a progressive and accessible institution focused on resolving key development challenges through innovative but realistic approaches”, Kamath said on Friday.

The bank plans to employ about 100 staff globally by the end of 2016 and will soon begin hiring in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

57 founding members, many of them prominent US allies, will sign into creation the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank on Monday, the first major global financial instrument independent from the Bretton Woods system.

Representatives of the countries will meet in Beijing on Monday to sign an agreement of the bank, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Thursday. All the five BRICS countries are also joining the new infrastructure investment bank.

The agreement on the $100 billion AIIB will then have to be ratified by the parliaments of the founding members, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said at a daily press briefing in Beijing.

The AIIB is also the first major multilateral development bank in a generation that provides an avenue for China to strengthen its presence in the world’s fastest-growing region.